Tag: UK

I love looking at water, not so much the sea, although I do enjoy it’s sparkle on bright sunny day’s. It’s the flow of a river or stream that can hold my attention, It’s like your own personal gallery, where the pictures are painted personally for you and only for today, moments, as tomorrow the curator, light; has gathered a new collection. Standing on the banks or as in this case on a walk way bridge with enough room for one person at a time to pass, studying a rivers flow I can get lost in thoughts, dreams, enjoying the marriage of colour that run and bleed into each other, as though an unseen hand of an artist is putting water colour down on some beautiful textured paper. Japanese culture has an entire philosophy for a similar thing called Shinrin Yoku – translated as ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’ or, more metaphorically, as ‘forest bathing’. I’m not sure western culture has such a beautiful name for enjoying the flow of water as river bathing conjures up other thought’s.

These watercolour’s are part of the river Avon in Warwickshire, England.

What can you hear? I can hear bird song along with the hoarse, grating caw of a crow. There’s no cow bellow as they are busy munching away on the rich green Welsh grass, or is it English, I cant tell as I was in border country. I was idly wondering around the small twisty country roads of this beautiful piece of Welsh English landscape, when I happen to pass an opening in the hedgerows that revealed this mesmerizing view. I cannot resist this beautiful light that I have only seen in Europe and the UK, it’s like the suns rays have to penetrate through millions and millions of tiny pearls of moisture invisible to the eye. I think you could indulge in all your passions of wanting to live in the countryside here, standing soaking up the atmosphere. I know I did, even if it was for only a moment.

I hope you can forgive me, but when it comes to my home country I have a very soft heart, I seem to go all glossy eyed and romantic when I think of this beautiful piece of the world.

Wales, it rains a lot, but without that rain you wouldn’t have Wales. The smell of the earth, it’s life. No wonder there was so much industry in this little country, the ground on which we walk hides a wealth of minerals that seemed to keep the world moving forward at one stage. Now, Wales give’s great pleasure and relaxation to the millions who visit it every year to go walking it’s great peaks, and it caters for the hardier as well as the less hardy or merely the ones who want to lie on one of it’s outstanding coastal beaches if the thought of walking makes you come over all tired. On some days though you become witness to scenes like this and you can still believe your an explorer. You could also be forgiven in thinking you have seen the dragon of Wales silently glide from around that distant mountain and clear the mist just long enough to catch a glimpse but still not sure what you saw. It is true you know, if you stand still long enough you can hear the sounds of gurgling streams, the sound of sheep on the mountain sides depending on the time of year. But for me as a photographer it’s light that gets my creative juices flowing and on this day God was putting on one incredible show, after all this is His favourite country.

I was staying with my brother on one of my bi-annual visits from Australia. He lives in the small hamlet village of Carno, Powys in the Parish of Montgomeryshire, it’s one of those places you seem to pass through on your way to greater things. His cottage, I might add you can now hire for your next Welsh escape, lies alongside the main A470, the main road that takes from the south to the north but being so rural you wouldn’t think so. The name of the village is said to have derived from the welsh word for cairn (carnedd), as there are many ancient cairns on the hills surrounding the village. One claim to fame for this little place is the designer and entrepreneur Laura Ashley who is buried in the churchyard. Anyway. I woke one autumn morning to witness this beautiful show of weather moving down through the valley. Grabbing my camera I photographed some of these scenes from the bedroom window, until I couldn’t contain myself any more and just had to get out and soak up the best of Welsh mountain weather and we hadn’t even eaten breakfast as yet. It was early and very still with a quietness you can expect in such a beautiful piece of Wales, no cars, no walkers, just this peacefulness with a smell of earth. We drove up to the top of the mountain pulling into the side of the country lane just the once to let the local farmer through with his tractor, not quite at the top we pulled over to make more images, the valley of Caersws seemed to want to be photographed this day.

A beautiful Autumn morning in Carno, Wales as the mist drops down into the Cledan valley.A beautiful Autumn morning in Carno, Wales as the mist drops down into the Cledan valley.A beautiful Autumn morning in Carno, Wales as the mist drops down into the Cledan valley.A beautiful Autumn morning in Carno, Wales as the mist drops down into the Cledan valley.A beautiful Autumn morning in Carno, Wales as the mist drops down into the Cledan valley.